When I was a kid “Made In Japan” equalled “inferior junk.” Now, many, many years later, “Made In Japan” has become, for the most part, a signature of quality.
Will China ever get there?
I doubt it.
We’re stuck with most hardware coming from China. Doesn’t make any difference where you buy it, or what the brand name is, likely it is made in China and very likely it is crap.
Take the cabinets we bought for our house. Burmese Cherry. Made in China. Crap. Cabinets came with no directions for installation, and it was definitely like a Chinese puzzle. Some drawer units were impossible to assemble, even for a “Little Person”, which, I think is the politically correct term for very small people. The hardware had a 25% failure rate to start with. We paid extra for magnetic drawer closers that would pull the drawers fully shut and keep them from slamming. They don’t work, and besides generally fall out of the asembly. About a third of the door fronts have either cracks or are separating at the joints. [Photos I provided to Marbol] The wine rack we ordered wasn’t made according to the very specific instructions and drawings we provided. And the cabinets with drawers we ordered for our closet, with matching counter tops (for which we paid!) we shipped with just scrap pieces of wood from cabinets with totally other finishes. This company could give a rip about our satisfaction and have now decided to go out of the cabinet business. They have disappeared along with their Web site which featured pictures of beautiful kitchens just lifted from US kitchen cabinet company Web sites. I guess Marbol is still hustling granite counter tops, but they’re out of the cabinet business, so I’m stuck and need to make the best of what I’ve got and repair the doors myself. They are still beautiful cherry cabinets, and look great . . . but I didn’t pay to go through all this shit.
The problem is, no matter what store you buy from, and even if it’s an old US name that used to indicate quality, it’s made in China, and likely won’t work. Westinghouse used to mean quality, now it generally means “Made In China.” I end up replacing lamp light switches every couple of months, and no matter what store I go to, all the lamp light switches are Westinghouse.
My latest is the Black & Decker hammer drill I bought a month ago and have only used about a dozen times. My Dewalt drill was stolen by one of the people who worked on our house while I was away on a cruise. [Second Dewalt drill I've had stolen in Panama. The thieves know a good drill.] So I went out to buy another. I looked up the drill I wanted on HomeDepot.com so I’d have an idea what I wanted, what the product number was, and about what it would cost. When I started looking I discovered two things. One, there’s no competition in Panama. Didn’t make any difference which store you went to, the price was more or less the same. Second, gratuitously, every drill was $50 more than Home Depot. OK, I guess that’s just the price you pay for living in Panama. But I don’t use a drill frequently so I figured I could get by with the cheaper Black & Decker. So I ended up paying $51.50 for a Black & Decker drill. I have no idea what this sells for in the States, because it doesn’t. You can’t find it on the Black & Decker Web site, and if you go to the Black & Decker Web site it doesn’t even recognize that the Republic of Panama exists.
All the drills the local hardware store had used keys. It’s beyond me why Black & Decker would even make a drill that wasn’t keyless, but . . . maybe clueless , they do. So you spent 90% of your project time looking for the dam key. And they must know it, because they put a little thingy on the power cord to stick your key in, as if anyone would actually do that in the midst of switching drill bits back and forth. If you’re going to insist on a key, why not at least figure a cord out to attach it to the drill?
Anyway, I use my Black & Decker HD450-B3 drill for the thirteenth time, to drill through concrete, which is what a hammer drill is for, and guess what . . . the drill bit holder thing-a-ma-jiggy breaks off. Just like the cheap Made in China screws that break apart when you try and use them. So I look to see where Black & Decker is made . . . you got it! “Made in China.” Another piece of Chinese crap . . . and I’m screwed again by China.
Oh yeah, the local hardware store I purchased it from . . . trying to keep the money in Boquete . . . went out of business July 1st.
You just gotta enjoy being screwed if you’re going to make it as an expat.
Has anyone in China figured out that if you screw the whole world producing inferior, or contaminated products, that people won’t want stuff that’s made in China?
Well apparently a lot of people are getting pissed off at products made in China . . . and at the companies that sell Chinese made products. According to LawyersandSettlements.com , obviously a somewhat biased source, I admit . . .
When it comes to purchasing products with the label “Made in China”, Caveat Emptor–let the buyer beware. Generally, consumers equate these three words with cheap and shoddy products. Now, “Made In China” also spells “Danger”.
The list of defective Chinese goods is long, from pet food containing melamine to toothpaste tainted with antifreeze, Five types of imported seafood were found to be laced with chemicals and, although no fatalities or illnesses have been reported in the U.S. yet, Chinese counterfeit glycerin found in cough syrup has been linked to more than 100 deaths in Panama.
In the wake of the US stepping up testing of Chinese products, the Chinese government reports that it closed 180 food plants and discovered 23,000 safety violations. Most disturbing is the amount of defective Chinese goods that have slipped through US investigators’ safety nets.
The Regulators
In 2003, leaders in China formed the State Food and Drug Administration but the agency was riddled with problems, from weak investigative procedures to corrupt officials. First director Zheng Xiaoyu was convicted of taking bribes from domestic pharmaceutical companies to approve untested medicine and was later executed.
The FDA in the United States also has its problems. Lack of funding and competition with 11 other federal regulatory agencies make it almost impossible to police our food supply.
Food
China has recently risen to be one of the world’s top agricultural exporters: in just four years, from 2002 to 2006, FDA-regulated foods imported from China more than doubled and experts predict the number to triple by the end of 2007.
Chinese foods are pervasive in most American kitchens; from additives such as xanthum gum (used as a thickener in dairy products, salad dressings and most frozen foods including ice cream) to preservatives such as ascorbic acid (Vitamin C). Most breakfast cereals are made in China.
Companies such as Kellog and General Mills are just now beginning to test additives such as wheat in their products. (Menu Foods pet recall found melamine in wheat gluten”a discovery that sounded the alarm bells to potential dangers in human food supply.) Recently, Veggie Booty was recalled after an outbreak of salmonella was traced back to the snack food. According to the US maker, salmonella was found in a spice imported from China that was used to season the snack food.
Toys
China produces 80 percent of the world’s toys, some of which contain lead paint. Soon after Target recalled about 200,000 Kool Toyz action figures because of sharp edges and lead contamination, Toys “R” Us discovered that the same Chinese company that manufactured those toys also made the Elite Operations figures in its stores. More recently, Mattel Inc., the world’s largest toymaker, recalled 1.5 million China-made Sesame Street, Dora the Explorer and other children’s products as they might contain “excessive levels” of lead. Eighty-one other types of Fisher-Price branded toys sold in US stores since May 2007 are included in the massive recall.
And lead paint isn’t restricted to toys: The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission recalled children’s jewelry from China that potentially could cause lead poisoning.
Tires
In June 2007, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration ordered a recall of 450,000 defective radial tires for pickup trucks, sport utility vehicles and vans. A New Jersey importer notified officials that its Chinese manufacturer had stopped including gum strips, a safety feature that holds the tire together and prevents it from separating.
(Tread separation led to the recall of millions of Firestone tires in 2000; this particular tire failure was linked to an increased risk of rollover of light trucks and SUV’s.)
The faulty tires are believed to have caused a car accident in Pennsylvania in August of 2006 that killed two people. A lawsuit filed by the families alleges the accident happened because the tire lacked the gum strip. The lawsuit alleges the Chinese company removed the critical gum strip after the initial test tires were manufactured. Consumer advocates said this case exposes significant loopholes in the system that regulates products in the United States.
Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) has called for a full investigation into the importation of the defective tires.
The New Jersey tire importer sued the manufacturer of the tires, Hangzhou Zhongce Rubber, in a New Jersey court. The Hague Convention is a policy which allows foreign corporations to be sued in different countries. Tire manufacturer Hangzhou Zhongce Rubber has been served under the Hague convention.
Other Lawsuits
As well, a number of lawsuits have been filed against importers of Chinese products. Menu Foods, the Ontario pet food maker whose Chinese-sourced product contained melamine, faces more than 100 class action lawsuits. A proposed class action has been filed against the distributor of various Thomas & Friends� wooden railway toys.
As long as companies continue to import Chinese goods, it is inevitable that more class actions will be filed.